The inability of the Ondo State government to pay its workers is taking heavy toll on residents of the state. Two civil servants have lost their lives as a result.
The state is owing its workers’ salaries for five months.
The Joint Negotiating Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress confirmed the death of the two civil servants on Wednesday, adding that another worker was caught stealing garri in Okitipupa town, Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state last week.
The Chairman of the JNC, Mr. Sunday Adeleye, disclosed this to journalists in Akure, while monitoring the compliance of workers to the strike called by the NLC and TUC as a result of the delayed salaries.
During the monitoring exercise, workers at the offices of the state’s Board of Internal Revenue and the Local Government Service Commission at Alagbaka, Akure, who opted not to participate in the industrial action were flogged and chased out by the monitoring team.
Most of the government secretariats, parastatals, hospitals and public schools in the states were under lock and key. Students who showed up for school were asked to go back home.
According to the state chairman of the NLC, Mrs. Bosede Daramola, the one-day-old strike will not be suspended until the government meets the workers’ demands.
“It would be morally wrong for the government to be watching its workers dying of hunger and ill-health caused by non-payment of salaries,” Daramola said.
